Tag Archives: meaning

Without the notion of Zero, our system of mathematics becomes meaningless. Similarly, the Fool is an essential part of the Tarot because he is the spark that sets everything else into motion, the divine breath that gives life and inspires the first step towards fulfillment and completion. Though the first step down a long path may often seem small in comparison to the journey, that first step is vital because without it there would be no journey at all! The Fool is the

The Magician’s number is One, the number of creation and individuality; his power is transformation through the use of his will. In his manipulation of the basic elements into all the substances and materials of life, he shows us that from a foundation of the mundane can emerge all that is to come. He can take the Nothing from which the Fool emerged and shape it into Something, making one out of zero. Clearly this is power of a divine sort, and it is true that the Magician is

The Empress represents a departure from the dualistic philosophy of the first three Major Arcana, as well as from the strongly spiritual teachings of those three cards. Rather than simple dichotomies of positive and negative, the Tarot now starts dealing with the unfication of spirit, mind and body. The Empress is the latter leg of this triad, representing the physical body and the material world. From her comes all the pleasure of the senses and the abundance of life

The second leg of the Body-Mind-Spirit triad is the Emperor, representing the power of the mind to shape the world. Such action does not take place at the command of the will, but through the command of the spoken or written word. The Emperor is the representation – and the ruler – of the structured and regulated world. This is an ideal world like the Empress’, though one that is not always as beautiful or lavish. But just because it is more harsh does not mean it is any

The Lovers card is not just about love and sexuality; it has several meanings which are all related to the duality expressed in the image of the card. The image of the two lovers holding hands or intertwined is a powerful symbol for the harmonious union of two beings, but it also stands for the necessity of proper choice, and some interesting concepts about the relationship of our conscious minds to whatever power brings these lovers together. It should be apparent that, in our

It is somewhat of a mystery why the Chariot, clearly a card of force and of control, should be of the Water element. But its attribution to Cancer is indeed valid because this card deals heavily with the emotions. Specifically, the Chariot is a card of emotional control; the power of the mind to shape the desires of the heart and direct them to meaningful expression. This is not the emotional control of the

The title of this card is often misleading because most people tend to think of strength as a property of the physical body. But this is not a card of brute force, because none of the Major Arcana apply directly to the physical body. These are cards of ideas, feeling and beliefs; trying to make a Major Arcanum depicting someone strong of body would be a pointless exercise. But strength is not always measured in terms of how much you can lift or how fast you can run. True Strength is

The Wheel of Fortune is a type of energy that stands beyond the realm of our understanding and control. Certainly you can experience its effects in life, like you feel the pull of gravity on your body. But just as you can see the apple falling but not the gravity pulling on it, so too are the works of Fate and Destiny invisible to us. Only their results can be seen, and even then, only when Destny itself decrees that the time is right for its effects to be manifested. Unlike the majority of the

Since the Major Arcana do not apply directly to physical life, it must follow that Justice does not apply to the laws made by mankind. True, sometimes the laws of mankind mimic the laws that Justice does enforce, and in those rare cases Justice can indeed refer to them. But Justice typically refers to the immutable laws of the Universe, the invisible principles that keep everything flowing forward smoothly through infinite causal chains. These are laws that cannot be violated; only enforced. And the sword of Justice, double-edged

The Hanged Man is the only Tarot card visibly based on a mythological figure. He is Odin, the Norse god who hung from the World Tree for nine days to earn the knowledge of the Runes. Of all the cultures who embody the search for knowledge in their myths, only Odin carries out his quest without moving, at least in the physical sense. The true quest is seeking within, not without. This may be confusing at first, but only because the Hanged Man is the card of the paradox. The Hanged